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April 21st, 2009
 | 09:03 am - Remembering The Holocaust, And Its Deniers
Remembering The Holocaust, And Its Deniers, by Evan Bernstein
Tuesday, April 21 is Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laGvura, “Remembrance Day for the Holocaust and Heroism”. This day is observed as a day of commemoration for the approximately six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. In Israel, it is a national memorial day.
As a boy growing up in a reformed Jewish home, Hebrew school on Wednesday nights and synagogue on Saturdays were part of my upbringing. As winter turned to spring each year, the discussions in the classroom and in the temple were that of Holocaust remembrance. Jewish children are exposed to both the horrors and history of the Holocaust at a very early age. By extension comes the learning of the broader history of Adolph Hitler, and the even broader history World War II. Eventually, these young and inquisitive minds delve, quite logically, deeper into even larger questions, such as “What was World War I”? There is practically no limit to how far you can extrapolate questions that stem from those world-altering events of the 20th century.
Hand-in-hand with Holocaust remembrance is the reminder of Holocasut denial. Holocaust denial is blend of anti-Semitism mixed with anti-history, for to deny the facts of the Holocaust is akin to denying the facts that nineteen members of Al Queda violently hijacked four passenger airplanes and flew three of them into buildings on September 11, 2001. For better or for worse, some people’s heads are too firmly buried in their hearts when they purposefully refuse to accept indisputable facts. Holocaust denial represents the worst feelings in the hearts and minds of people, and the deniers will be damned before any facts get in the way of their most cherished beliefs.
In the truest sense of the spirit of Yom HaZikaron, and as a tip-of-the-hat to the traditions of my upbringing, I would like to extrapolate the recognition of April 21 to include the other victims of Holocaust-like atrocities of the 20th century. They include, and are in no way limited to:
- The additional Polish, Romanian, Soviet, and German handicapped people (upwards of 10 million) murdered by the Nazi regime during World War II.
- The upwards of 1.5 million Armenians killed at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.
- The upwards of 1.5 million Greeks and Armenians killed at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.
- The estimated 5-10 million Ukrainians, plus 20-40 million Russians and people from other former Soviet states that perished at the hands of Josef Stalin and the Soviet Empire.
- The upwards of 300,000 victims in Nanking, China who were tortured, raped, and killed at the hands of Emperor Hirohito and the army of Imperial Japan. Japan’s occupation of China prior to and during World War II killed upwards of 30 million Chinese.
- The staggering 49 million to 78 million Chinese people that died under the rule of Mao Ze-Dong.
- Upwards of 1.5 million Iraqi people tortured, raped, and killed at the hands of Sadaam Hussein.
- Upwards of 2 million Cambodians destroyed upon the actions of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge.
- An estimated 1.5 million Ethiopian people suffered and died from 1975-1978 under the rule of Mengistu Haile Mariam.
- Upwards of 1 million Rwandans slaughtered by the Hutu militia of that country.
- Upwards of 1.6 million (and it could be millions more) people that have died in North Korea under the rule of Kim Il-Sung and his son, Kim Jong-Il.
And there are even more (see this website). They all deserve recognition in their proper historical context. Besides the innate horror that threads all of these despicable instances of human history, another thing they all have in common is that they all have detractors and historical revisionists that dispute the facts of history concerning these attrocities.
It is unfortunate, but history denial and Holocaust denial are omnipresent. They are timeless, and they are ceaseless. They must be confronted, fought, and constantly corrected by educators, scholars, historians, scientists, politicians (especially world leaders) and by the skeptical community at large.
http://www.theskepticsguide.org/sgublog/?p=664
All spelling errors are Evan's. I know there are several.
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